File:Memorial to Sir William Pelham, Brocklesby church (23384182442).jpg

Sir William Pelham (C.1537 - 1587) was third son of Sir William Pelham of Laughton, Sussex, and one of the most eminent military commanders of the reign of Elizabeth. He commanded the pioneers in the Army under the Duke of Norfolk, and was sent to the assistance of the Scots against the French 1560. In 1562 he was at the taking of Caen, in Normandy. Marshal of Leicester's army in the Netherlands, in 1563 he was wounded in the defence of Newhaven, subsequently employed in Ireland, and received the honour of Knighthood for his services in that Kingdom 1579, in which year, the Lord Governor, Sir William Drury dying, Sir William Pelham was appointed, in October, by the council, justiciar of Ireland, with the authority of Lord Deputy, until a Lord Deputy should be appointed, and he administered the government until September 1580. He died in debt to the crown in November 1587. Pelham married, first, Eleanor Neville (died 1574),daughter of Henry Neville, 5th Earl of Westmorland. By her he had one son, Sir William Pelham, (who succeeded him, and married Ann, eldest daughter of Charles Willoughby, 2nd Baron Willoughby of Parham) His second wife was Dorothy, daughter of Anthony Catesby of Whiston, Northamptonshire, and widow of Sir William Dormer, by whom he had a son, Peregrine, and a daughter, Ann.